[SATLUG] Novel in bed with M$

[Travis H.]

On Fri, Nov 03, 2006 at 12:38:37AM -0700, augie grayfox wrote:
> OMG!! Is this for real? Comments anyone
> <http://blogs.zdnet.com/Gardner/index.php?p=2369>

IMHO this is just like MS's "support" for MSIE on HP-UX.  Or for
pen/tablet-based computing (which, oddly enough, is making a comeback
nearly ten years later, and nobody remembers Go Computing).  One
could argue they tried this with WinCE on PDAs to kill Palm, but
Palm's still around and kicking.

They announce it to get everyone on board, establish predatory
pricing, wait a while for the competitors to die off, then drop
support for it, claiming that there isn't enough demand for the
particular combination.  That 2012 date is imaginary; can anyone
imagine significant consequences from breaking it, after they've
already been convicted as an anti-competitive monopoly?  Nothing
happened then and nothing will happen when the break this deal.

I wouldn't be surprised if they offer some application suite on
Linux just to get people to start saving their data in proprietary
formats, wait until they get locked in and the cost of switching
to another application suite is high, then suddenly drop support
for the suite on Linux due to "lack of demand".

Also, if Novell can make use of MS patents, so what?  We'd be trading
"free" software for proprietary, patented software.  It seems they
are making a lot of "mixed source"; this implies to me that they're
going to try to bring the open-source guys over a bit.  The people
running proprietary stuff can _already_ run open-source.  Does anyone
think there will be a mass exodus from people using Word to... lyx?

Also, there's the issue of the coupons.  I bet you there's nothing
to force Microsoft to give them out.  This reminds me of the vanity
publishing scam; take payments to print and sell someone's novel,
promising them a generous slice of the sales, let them sit in a
warehouse, and then tell the disappointed author, "Gee, none sold,
would you like to buy them, because if not we're going to burn them".
So the sucker ends up paying for them twice.

It's not all bad news.  On the sunny side, it appears that MS is
being forced to acknowledge that Linux exists and isn't going away.
And if I get SuSE maybe I can print the darn Excel spreadsheets
the HR department requires us to use (they render/print wrong under
Open Office, making them unusable).

However, I can count the number of companies that became successful
by partnering with Microsoft on one finger (Intel).  If you shake
hands with Microsoft, you better count your fingers afterwards.

If you want more background on MS and their strategies, I've got
a number of links on my home page in the signature:
-- 
"Cryptography is nothing more than a mathematical framework for
discussing various paranoid delusions." -- Don Alvarez
<URL:http://www.subspacefield.org/~travis/> -><-